Eidos – Always Learning, a strategic partner of Microsoft and The Trust for the Americas, will train local partners in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico who are currently implementing the POETA YouthSpark project, an initiative of Microsoft Philanthropy. Implemented in six countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, POETA YouthSpark seeks, through technology, to empower educators and vulnerable youth in order to facilitate opportunities for education, entrepreneurship, and employment through in essential, technical, and digital skills.
The TEC.LA training is a program for educators, serving as the gateway to the world of Computational Thinking, adapted to the needs of each country. TEC.LA promotes learning spaces for new educational practices that stimulate computational thinking, providing practical and theoretical tools for all types of teachers – educators, professors, facilitators – who are trained in the POETA YouthSpark 2019 project.
”Computational Thinking is a way of thinking and ordering information that constitutes a problem-solving methodology and a transversal skill across all educational content, which allows for narrowing the technology usage gap of children and youth.” – Eidos Always Learning.
In Brazil, the training sessions took place in the cities of Sobradinho/DF and São Paulo/SP, with the support of POETA's partner organizations: Obras Sociais Jerônimo Candinho (OSJC), Centro de Tecnologia e Inovação (CTI), and Instituto Tecnológico Inovação (ITI).
60 educators from different social organizations, public schools, and universities participated. With this training, the educators will begin using this process so that young people have the opportunity to interact with technology at a deeper level, not just as users, but also being able to understand the possibilities of solving problems using computers as facilitators of their own potential.
TEC.LA’s main objective is to strengthen our local partners so that, as part of the POETA YouthSpark Project, these partners can prepare young people for the future of work. For this reason, last November in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as a prelude to these training sessions, The Trust for the Americas held its first regional meeting as part of the G20 Summit to discuss the Future of Work: the role that the public and private sectors play in the education of young people, especially women, as well as in creating job opportunities for these young people.
In particular, they discussed the role of technology in the Future of Work and the challenges that the public and private sectors face in their work to bring young people closer to technology through computer science. During the event, working sessions were held with the participation of international experts who, through lectures and panel discussions, addressed these issues.
The event was attended by Jorge Cella, Director of Philanthropy at Microsoft Latin America; Paula Ferrari, Regional Marketing Director for Latin America; Agustín Batto, President of Y20 and CEO of Eidos; María Liliana Mor, Director of Programs at The Trust for the Americas; Pierina Nepote, Project Manager; and Manuel Matiz, Communications Coordinator at the same organization.
About The Trust for the Americas:
The Trust for the Americas is a nonprofit organization and a member of the Organization of American States (OAS), whose mission is to promote partnerships for economic and social inclusion in the Americas. Established in 1997, The Trust was created to engage the public and private sectors, as well as civil society initiatives, in the social and economic development of Latin America and the Caribbean. The organization’s initiatives improve communities’ access to economic opportunities, public safety, and opportunities for democratic expression and good governance. The Trust for the Americas provides partner organizations with training tools, services, products, and technical assistance to better serve vulnerable communities in the region.